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Morality In Daniel Keyes 'Flowers For Algernon'

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"I want to be smart," (Keyes 1). Charlie Gordon, a mentally challenged man with an I.Q. of 68 was the first person to undergo a new, controversial operation to make him more intelligent. New technologies like the surgery Charlie had can have positive, negative and a mixture of both effects. Because of the operation, Charlie was able to grow emotionally and intellectually but was also subjected to unknown consequences of the surgery. Charlie going through with the surgery provided new information for the medical and science field but at the same time there is an issue with the morality of the surgery. In the novel, Flowers for Algernon, the author Daniel Keyes develops the idea that both good and harm can result from technology.

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